And my brother’s back at home
With his Bagels and his Scones
We never got it off on the Cornbread stuff
What a drag, too many crumbs
David Breadbowl – All the Yeast Dudes
Boulanger Records announces Rockin’ Rolls: A Collection of Classic Rock Bread Hits. This two-disc set promises to be the best thing since sliced bread.*
Disc 1 –
Creedence Crumpet Revival – Fortunate Scone
Rusk – Frybread by Night
Fleetwood Matzo – Dough Your Own Way
Iggy Poptarts – Crust for Life
The Doughs – Challah, I Love You
Deep Pumpernickel – Toast on the Water
Croissant, Stills, Lavash & Young – Teach your Ciabatta
The Bagels – You’ve Got to Hide Your Loaf Away
Steve Muffin Band – Take the Honey Bun
Pink Flatbread – Dark Side of the Croissant
Croutons Trio – Where has all the Flour Gone?
Disc 2 –
Pita Frampton – Baby I love Your Grain
Blood Sweat & Tortillas – You Bake Me So Very Happy
Blue Oyster Crackers – (Don’t Fear) the Sourdough
Nick Cave and the Bad Seedbuns – Into My Oven
Americrust – I Knead You
Lof Zeppelin – Stairway to Leaven
Grateful Bread – Uncle John’s Baguette
Rye Toast Speedwagon – Kaiser Roll with the Changes
Chapati Smith Band – Biscuit the Night
Challah and Oatbread – Naaneater
The Rolling Scones – Sympathy for the Bagel
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*I wonder if I need to start having warning labels on my posts: This post contains extremely high levels of puns, wordplay and other silliness. Proceed at your own risk.
There are times when I feel a bit overwhelmed by the connections.
Facebook has been great for tracking down friends my past lives, and I’ve reconnected with friends from many different phases in my life. But it’s too much all at once. I can’t keep up. There are friends that I’ve wondered about for years, tried to track them down on the web, and yet now that I’ve found them, I haven’t even managed to send a message.
I have other friends who live nearby, but we haven’t managed to stay in touch. Mostly it’s my fault. There are people I should just call.
I owe cards. Wedding cards. Sympathy cards. I owe thank you notes. Emails.
Don’t even get me started on being a just a tiny speck.
“Thinking again?” the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp little chin.
“I’ve a right to think,” said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to feel a little worried.
“Just about as much right,” said the Duchess, “as pigs have to fly….”
— Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 9.
Everyone knows that pigs can’t fly.
Except, of course, when they do. And fly they do, in all sorts of lore and literature, song and show, and even in a few airborne vessels. This ThThTh list is hog-wild for the swine of the skies.
A list of flying pigs
when pigs fly: an expression by which a speaker can convey the opinion that a given event will never happen. As in “this blog will be awarded a Pulitzer when pigs fly.”
when pigs grow wings: an expression that means “when pigs fly”
Pigs Have Wings, by P.G. Wodehouse. A book by the author of the Jeeves and Wooster series.
The first recorded pig flight took place in England in 1909. (source)
The first historically recorded flight of a pig took place on British soil, at Leysdown in Kent in 1909. The pig was carried aloft by J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon, later the First Lord Brabazon of Tara, in his personal French-built Voisin aero plane.
The pig was placed into a wicker basket, which was in turn strapped to a wing strut of the aero plane. A hand-lettered sign attached to the basket read: ‘I am the first pig to fly.’ Brabazon purposefully carried the pig aloft, thereby disproving the long help opinion that ‘pigs can not fly.’
Pigs in Space: these pigs from the Muppet Show have mastered not just flight, but space flight.
ad astra per alia porci: Steinbeck’s motto “To the stars on the wings of a pig” (found via the blog On Pig’s Wings, taking its name “from Steinbeck, whose motto, described his status as a ‘lumbering soul but trying to fly.'” )
Can’t get enough flying pigs? Lots more about them can be found at Porkopolis, a website devoted to all things porcine. Be sure to check posts in the category “flight,” and the informative post A Brief History of Pigs and Flight. Flying pigs have their own Wiki page, too.
It’s the 5th of November. Which makes me remember some things about remembering.
I’m fascinated by memory, and clearly I’m not alone, judging from the large number of movies, stories, songs and such that feature themes of memory. Or loss of memory. Here’s a ThThTh list of some things I can remember:
string tied around a finger: if you need to remember something, you can tie a string around your finger as a reminder that there was something you were supposed to remember. This relies on you being able to remember what it was that you hoped to remember.
souvenir: a keepsake or memento, typically from a visit to a place to which one has travelled. From the French verb souvenir, “to remember”
memento: an object kept to remember a time, place or event. From the latin remember:
L. memento “remember,” imperative of meminisse “to remember,” a reduplicated form, related to mens “mind.” Meaning “reminder, warning” is from 1582; sense of “keepsake” is first recorded 1768. (from etymology online)
Memento (2000): a movie about a man who loses his ability to form new memories.
Chester Tate: A character on the 70s TV show Soap who spends several episodes with amnesia.
“Tabula Rasa,” a Buffy episode: A spell gone awry causes the main characters to forget who they are. Hilarity ensues. (Seriously, it’s a really fun, funny episode.)
“The Forget me Knot,” an episode of The Avengers in which Emma Peel forgets who she is. (This was Diana Rigg’s last episode on the series.)
“Forget Me Not,” an amnesia episode of Gilligan’s Island (Okay, I didn’t actually remember this one, guessed that there was an amnesia episode.)
For that matter, there are probably plenty of episodes from sci-fi shows like those in the Star Trek and Star Gate universes.
While my pants were off galavanting about Spain, without an iPod in my pocket, the lovely and talented Rimatagged my pants for a meme. A pants meme.
The ensuing weeks of painstaking research (thankfully not pantstaining research), and the reunion of my iPod and my pants, have resulted in the following playlist of pants:
Photographic in my pants–(Depeche Mode. Seriously old school Depeche Mode.)
Shiawase (Happiness) in my pants– Puffy AmiYumi
Anchor in my pants–Trespassers William
Under the Milky Way in my pants–The Church
Crash in my pants–The Primitives
Chains of Love in my pants–Erasure
Trampoline in my pants–Calamine
Pilgrimage in my pants–Nine Inch Nails
Nutshell in my pants–Alice in Chains
Bizare Love Triangle in my pants–New Order
Pianos and Clocks in my pants–Aztec Camera
Protection in my pants–Massive Attack
The Ramblings of a Mad Man in my Pants–FSOL
Welcome to the Fold in my pants–Filter
Overflow in my pants–O Positive
Radio Silence in my pants–Thomas Dolby
The Postcard in my pants–Boris Grebenshikov
Island in the Sun in my pants–Weezer
Bamboleo in my pants–Gipsy Kings
Psychobabble in my pants–Frou Frou
Rockville in my pants–R.E.M.
And now I’m going to go all crazy with the tagging. I tag the pants of the last 10 blog-bearing people who left comments on my blog. (For those of you who left comments and don’t have blogs, why don’t you have blogs??) I’m also going to tag my friend jenny, just because I like to see what’s on her iPod.²
If you want to join in, the game is played thusly: set your iPod to shuffle, and make a note of the songs that come up. Append the phrase “in my pants.” As many songs as you choose. If you have no iPod, come up with a list of songs of your choosing. If you have no pants, you may want to append instead the phrase “without pants.” Or you can write a 500-word essay discussing your current state of pantslessness.
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¹ Note that the post title song is not on my iPod. But the song, along with “Do a Deer in my pants,” has been stuck in my head. Perhaps I’ll leave it to your imagination what has been stuck in my pants.
² And because I wanted to go all the way up to 11.³
³ Because otherwise I wouldn’t have a good segue to mention going through airport security with a cucumber in my pants.⁴
Emily of Wheels on the Bus sent out an unusual plea, having recently gone to seePuppetolio, an LA-area puppet theater that is closing its doors this weekend unless they manage to…um…pull a few strings:
If you know anyone who lives in L.A., anyone in the media, anyone who loves puppets, anyone who reads blogs, anyone who cares about the arts, then you know someone who will find this of interest and might be able to help.
I’m not around L.A., but I do care about the arts, and children’s entertainment, and I hate to see such a time-honored tradition dying out. So, if you can, go see what Emily has to say. And if you can, pull a few strings to help out the puppeteer in his plight.
But first, I’m putting on ashow of my own with this ThThTh¹ list o’ puppets.
Punch and Judy: traditional English puppet theatre, typically performed in a booth-type stage.
Pinocchio: a famous wooden puppet of fiction and film who comes to life.
Muppets: a range of mostly cloth and plush puppets, originally created by Jim Henson.
puppet: an expression for a person or entity whose actions are covertly dictated by some other person or entity. Political figures are sometimes disparagingly called puppets.
The Godfather: The poster for the 1972 movie shows a hand holding the string controls for a marionette, alluding to the “puppet master” status of a mafia boss
“The Lonely Goatherd”: A scene from The Sound of Music (1965) in which an elaborate puppet show is performed
Baby, Baby, I’m your sweet pet
I’m just your personal marionette
Wind me up and let me go
Don’t you know I’m a one man show?
Raise your finger and I’ll perform
I’ll crack a jack till’ the crack a dawn
If you wanna see me do my thing, baby pull my string
“Puppets”: a song by Depeche Mode from their first album, Speak and Spell. (YouTube vid)
And I don’t think you understand
What I’m trying to say
I’ll be your operator baby
I’m in control
The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre: What can I say? They are sock puppets. Who sing in falsetto voices. With Scottish accents. Watch their latest video, “Back in E.D.I.N. BRAW“:
Lamb Chop: a sheep sock puppet operated by comedian Shari Lewis.
Bob from the TV show Soap.
A ventriloquist’s dummy operated by Chuck, but a character in his own right. (Watch a scene with Bob here)
Mr. Hat: Mr. Garrison’s puppet from the show South Park
“The Puppet Show“: an episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer involving a ventriloquist’s dummy.
Puppetmaster (1989) A horror movie with puppets that come to life.
Being John Malkovich (1999) John Cusack plays a puppeteer, and puppeteering features prominently in the plot. The movie also boasts a gigantic Emily Dickinson marionette.
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¹ It’s been a while since I put up my last Themed Things Thursday² post. (Has it really not been since April? Craziness. I’ve drafted probably a good dozen or so lists, but haven’t quite gotten any together and ready to post.)
² Yes, I know it’s Friday. Don’t quibble with me. I’m tired.
Image sources: Godfather poster, Punch puppet, Pinnochio from Ginn and Company The Common School Catalogue (Boston: Ginn & Company Publishers, 1906) 40 via etc and puppet show from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (New York: Harper and Brothers Publshers, 1871) XLII:831 via etc.
Welcome to the latest Just Posts, a monthly roundtable of posts on topics of social justice and activism from around the blogosphere. Holly (of Cold Spaghetti) and I are pleased to present an excellent round-up of posts that explore a range of topics that affect our world and our worldview: race and gender, health and wellness, lifestyle and socioeconomic disparities, to name a few.
Each month that I’ve been hosting the Just Posts, I’ve been highlighting a song that speaks to some of the issues that get discussed in the posts of the roundtable. This time I’ll put it at the end so we can get right to the all-important lists.
The July Just Posts:
anvilcloud of Raindrops in the Desert with Dedicated…
And now for something completely different. Or for the song. This month, I’ve been drawn to a somewhat odd choice: Chumbawamba’s “Pass it Along.”
(Forgive the bizarre video. It’s a zombie montage. It’s what’s available.)
It’s got nice harmonies and a good beat, and it’s catchy. This catchiness landed the song a role in a car commercial for GM in 2002. Amusingly, after the band accepted the $100,000 from GM, they handed the money over to “the anti-corporate activist groups Indymedia and CorpWatch who used the money to launch an information and environmental campaign against GM.” (From the Chumbawamba wiki page. You can read the full scoop on Salon.)
This song popped up on my iPod, while I was driving around a few days ago, and simple as it is, it’s one of those songs that has made me think.
Pass it along by word of mouse
Save the world, don’t leave the house
With my insatiable appetite for puns, the “word of mouse” phrase really caught my attention. The Just Posts are all about transmitting ideas by “word of mouse.” And, well, we want to save the world.
It’s easy to wonder how much we can do to save the world without leaving the house. I still haven’t forgotten the call to action from jen and Mad, illustrious co-founders of the Just Posts, to get up off our sofas and volunteer. To put our hands to work in ways that impact the world more directly than typing on our laptops.
But I’m sorry to say that I still haven’t acted, even on my idea to volunteer with Phoebe and Theo. I don’t want to make excuses, but lately there hasn’t been enough of me to go around without committing hours and energy to volunteer work. I’ll get there one of these days.
Enough about me. Back to the song.
Because a virtual office in a virtual home
Means you never have to drive through the wrong part of town
Hey! Are you guys dissing telecommuting? Because at least working from home can save gas.
I know, I know. It’s not just about telecommuting. The lyrics speak to the tendency of the better-off to hole up in safety, and avoid looking at, and interacting with, the problems that threaten our world. It’s a protest against closed gates, closed minds, and corporate greed. (It’s no coincidence that a line from the refrain of the song, “Where do you want to go today,” was also a slogan used by Microsoft.)
So here’s your final resting place
Your heaven is protected by security gates
Shut out the world, it’s getting worse
Save yourself, don’t leave the house
Because a happy future is a thing of the past
I take your point, Chumbwamba. But hopefully we can still work towards that happy future.
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Thank you for visiting this month’s Just Posts. Please drop by Holly’s to see what she has to say this month.
If you have a post in the list above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
Welcome to the June edition of the Just Posts, a monthly roundtable of posts about topics of social justice and activism in all shapes and sizes. Holly and I are pleased to share this wealth of posts that inspire and move and make us think.
The beginning of June saw the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989. Not even two weeks later, the world’s eyes turned to Iran as news came through of suspected fraud in the results of the presidential election. Reports and images of large scale protests of the disputed results were followed by those of violent crackdown against the protesters.
Each month, I have been highlighting a protest song in my introduction of the Just Posts list. The Tiananmen anniversary and the ongoing crackdown against protesters in Iran bring to mind the song “Ohio,” by Neil Young:
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
The song was written in response to the the 1970 shootings at Kent State University in Ohio, in which 4 unarmed students were shot during a protest of the Vietnam War.
(This is a concert performance by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, with not-so-great sound quality. You can find a better quality acoustic version by Neil Young here.)
Whether or not the Iranian election results are legitimate (and I’m inclined to doubt their validity), it has been inspiring to witness the passion of so many in Iran as they call for reform in their government and demand that their voices be heard and their votes be counted. It has also been sobering to see the violent and repressive response from the government of Iran and the conservative supporters of that government, who have been acting to suppress the free flow of information.
While there is little that we can do to help, as individuals outside of Iran, recent technologies (like Twitter) have empowered those who are speaking out within Iran, and provided tools for organization and communication in the face of official attempt to silence the protests.
I’d like to take this as reminder that the act of speaking out by an individual can be part of a powerful movement for change. To speak out against the violent crackdown against protesters in Iran, you can add your voice to those of others around the world, such as by signing the petition organized by Avaaz.
I would also like to cheer on those people in the list below for speaking out on topics that are meaningful to them. I’d like to entreat you to visit their posts and encourage them to continue to speak out. Please click on the links!
If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
collecting tokens 